Slow Cooker Corn & Potato Soup with Sautéed Shrimp

I’ve built up an assortment of cooking magazines from over the years, but I’m not very good and taking them off the shelf and using them. Most of the time I end up picking our meals from Pinterest.

I have a collection of Rachael Ray Every Day, Bon Appétit, Southern Living and Cooking Light. We wanted something easy for dinner this week, so I found a slow cooker soup recipe from the August 2016 issue. This soup was even better as leftovers when we added some shredded chicken to it!

Slow Cooker Corn & Potato Soup with Sautéed Shrimp (adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

•        7 ears yellow corn, shucked
•        4 cups unsalted chicken stock
•        1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
•        1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
•        6 small red potatoes, cut into 3/4-in. pieces
•        1 cup half-and-half
•        1/4 cup unsalted butter, divided
•        1 teaspoon black pepper
•        Sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning
•        1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
•        3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, divided
•        Optional: cooked chicken, shredded (great way to use leftover rotisserie)

Directions:

1. Cut kernels from corn cobs to measure about 4 cups. Using the dull side of a knife blade, scrape liquid from corn cobs directly into a 6-quart slow cooker.

2. Add cobs and 3 cups kernels. Stir in chicken stock, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and potatoes. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 hours and 30 minutes.

3. Discard cobs. Stir half-and-half and 2 tablespoons butter into corn mixture. Transfer corn mixture to a blender (depending on your blender size, you may have to do half at a time). Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in lid (to avoid splatters). Process until smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Stir in pepper.

4. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat; cook 2 minutes or until foamy. Add shrimp, remaining 1 cup corn kernels, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to pan; sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning.  Cook 4 minutes or until shrimp turn pink and are done, stirring occasionally.

5. Stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons chives. Divide soup among 10 shallow bowls; top evenly with shrimp mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons chives.

Best Ever Chip Dip

This chip dip is my mom's recipe and it is BY FAR one of the easiest things to make.  You literally dump everything into a bowl and that's it.  For an easy last-minute appetizer, tailgate, or potluck dish, I love making this because despite being made from mostly canned foods, it tastes so fresh and vibrant.   

Best Ever Chip Dip  

Ingredients:

• 1 can whole kernel corn 
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 can Rotel (the Mexican variety is best, but that's not always easy to find) 
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (I actually used a variety called culantro that lasts longer/stays fresher than normal cilantro) 
• drizzle of olive oil
• drizzle of red wine vinegar 

Directions:

1. Combine everything - that's it!  Enjoy

Homemade Corn Chowder

Last week a Winn Dixie flyer came in the mail featuring a recipe by chef Curtis Stone for fresh corn chowder.  I don’t make soup all that often (maybe because it’s Florida and 90 degrees out most of the time…) but this one looked really tasty. 

Lance’s only critique of the original recipe was that it ONLY had 3 slices of bacon in the whole soup…so to make him happy I doubled it to 6 slices.  With the heavy cream and all that bacon, it isn’t the healthiest of soups, but it is hearty and filling. 

Homemade Corn Chowder (adapted from Curtis Stone)

Ingredients:

• 6 slices bacon, coarsely chopped
• ½ yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 large sprigs fresh thyme
• ¼ tsp red pepper
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 5 tsp whole wheat flour (that’s the only flour I have…)
• 1-1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1-1/2 cups whole milk (I actually just had 2%, so I did a bit more cream and a bit less of the milk)
• 4 ears corn, husked, kernels removed
• 1 can corn
• 2 t chopped parsley (I only had dried but fresh would be better)
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• Salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a large heavy pot over medium-high heat.  Add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until crisp.

2. Add onions, garlic, thyme, and red pepper and cook, stirring often, for about 4 minutes or until onions start to become tender.

3. Add celery and cook, stirring often, until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes.  Sprinkle in flour and stir for about 2 minutes.

4. Stir in stock, cream, and milk and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add spinach. 

5. Stir in corn and simmer 5-10 more minutes or until chowder begins to thicken.  Remove and discard thyme stems.  Season with salt & pepper. 

6. Stir in half the parsley.  Ladle chowder into bowls and sprinkle with remaining parsley.  

Sweet Corn Guacamole

I just started a new job 2 weeks ago.  A few days ago, one of my new coworkers actually had her last day there, so we had a going away party for her with Mexican food.  I made this new guacamole recipe and it was great!  I’ll definitely use this recipe again.  I actually didn’t have enough time to grill the avocados like they recommended – I’m sure it would be even more delicious though. 

Sweet Corn Guacamole (adapted from Damn Delicious)

Ingredients:

·        Juice of 1 lime

·        Pinch of garlic powder

·        Pinch of paprika

·        3 avocados, halved, seeded & peeled

·        1 ear of corn

·        ¼ cup minced red onion

·        ¼ cup crumbled goat cheese

·        2 T chopped fresh cilantro

·        Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.  Shuck the corn and boil in water for about 10 minutes.  Cut the corn from the cob. 

2. Add all ingredients to a bowl (reserve a bit of the lime juice to top the guac so it doesn’t brown).  Mash with a potato masher.  Top with the remaining lime juice. 

3. It’s that easy!  If you have time to follow the original recipe, you can grill the avocado until lightly browned for about 3-4 minutes. 

4. If you need it to keep overnight, you can press saran-wrap over the top (touching the guac to keep air from getting to it). 

Picnic at Honeymoon Island & Barley Mow Brewing

 

Lance’s sister & brother in law, Brandi & Jeremy, got us an awesome grill for Christmas, and we’ve been so busy we haven’t had the chance to use it until we brought it to Honeymoon Island the other day!  Before, we only had our little George Foreman, but this one is great because it’s compact enough for our small porch and it’s portable.

Last time we went to Honeymoon Island was back in 2011 – we had only been dating a month, and we took the ferry from there to Caladesi Island.  That was in the summer, so it was beautiful weather, but we didn’t plan for how cold it would be this time!  The highs were in the 50’s, but with the wind it felt more like the 40’s.  Luckily I brought a jacket, but it wasn’t really beach weather.  The ferry to Caladesi was closed due to the high wind. 

Originally we thought we’d set up by the water, but we moved to a picnic shelter to keep warm and make sure the grill stayed lit.    

 

Like most of our picnics, we made a run to Trader Joe’s first to pick up some food.  We bought their Spicy Italian Vino & Formaggio Chicken Sausages, baked beans, corn, peppers, and onions to grill.  We were going to just get some normal hot dog buns, but we saw that TJ’s had soft pretzel sticks, which was so much more exciting!  We topped the sausages with the veggies and Double Cream Gouda cheese (I also love the smoked gouda cheese at TJ’s!) 

We grilled the corn with Sriracha Kaffir Lime Rub from Williams Sonoma (a gift from my cousin Chris and his wife Marty). 

As an impulse buy, we bought some nuts to snack on – Thai Lime & Chili Cashews and Sesame Honey Almonds.  WOW they are both delicious.  The cashews at first bite didn’t seem all that spicy, but the chili hits you after a few seconds – make sure you have something to drink with these.  And the sesame almonds were really filling – they’d be a good snack to hold you over between meals. 

 

We had planned to grill pineapple as well, but we had way too much food already.  We walked it off on the Osprey Trail, which was a really nice little hike.  We saw an eagle in its nest – then another one joined carrying a fish!  There were also a bunch of armadillos along the trail. 

 

 

Lance’s niece, Lila, sent us a “Flat Stanley” a few weeks ago.  We had to bring him on adventures and document his experiences in a journal, then mail him back to her class in Pittsburgh so she could talk about his trip.  One of the pages asked what the landscape looked like in our area compared to Pennsylvania, so we brought him to the beach with us. 

 

Afterwards we checked another brewery off our map by visiting Barley Mow Brewing Company in Largo.  We kept hearing great things about their beer, and we weren’t disappointed.  The people were very friendly, and it was clear a lot of the patrons there were regulars. 

A photographer from Visit St. Pete Clearwater was there taking pictures of their Quackalope IPA, so Lance got a free beer for letting them take shots of him drinking one (I don’t think they’re online yet, but I did find a really great video they posted last month about the Craft Beer Trail!)

I especially liked the Son of a Seabiscuit – which is a sweet amber beer brewed with Serrano peppers.  I probably couldn’t drink more than one, but the small taste in the flight was the perfect way to warm up from the chilly weather. 

 

 

Honeymoon Island is located at 1 Causeway Blvd, Dunedin, FL 34698.

Barley Mow is located at 518 W Bay Dr, Largo, FL 33770 and is open 3pm – 2am Monday – Friday and 12pm – 2am Saturday – Sunday.